ape
1
8.3
- noun
- /eɪp/
- Offensive
- I’m an ape from the Stone Age, remember?
Examples
-
"We must look like apes to you after so many years at the books."
Fiction book (1990) -
He always tries to ape the way his favorite actors speak in movies.
-
Please teach me how to be an ape, too.
-
Once you were apes, and even now, man is more ape than any ape.
Blog text (18) -
We will ape the opposite sex and try and be as tough and predatory as its worst members can be.
-
During the presentation, he began to ape the gestures of the speaker, which made everyone laugh.
-
When she dresses like her favorite pop star, she feels like she is aping her style.
Synonyms
23
3.3
A person who does the same things or says the same words as another person
8
3.4
A person who copies another person's words, actions, or style
7
6.8
A person who repeats other people's words or actions without understanding them
5
4.2
A person who copies others' actions or voice to make people laugh
1
6.8
A person who tries to copy and match someone's words or actions
1
9.9
A person who copies another person's words or actions without their own ideas
1
6.2
A person who copies others' voices, actions, or gestures to entertain people
A woman or girl who copies the style of others
Compounds
5
3.4
A large animal like a gorilla or orangutan with no tail and closely related to humans
- UK
1
8.9
A monkey without a tail that lives on rocky cliffs and in forests of northwest Africa and Gibraltar
- Specialized
1
6.3
A large tailless animal like a gorilla or chimpanzee that is more like humans than other monkeys
How Imitative
Surface Forms
Etymology
Ape meaning 'a person who imitates' comes from the idea that apes copy actions; a helpful way to remember it is to think of an 'ape' as someone who simply 'copies' others without adding new ideas.